Have we done this one yet? Cycling Weekly caption a female rider as “Token Attractive Woman” 😯

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-41122033

Jesus Christ

Oh FFS!

Rachel

I used to buy the comic every week, I haven’t bought it for years – this partly explains why.

That is some top-level editing there.

pfft.

Ha! Slipped that one past the editor. Embarrassing I’d say. But it’s probably an utter OUTRAGE in these internet times.

singletrack mag could be spoiled for choice, if they used a reader as ‘token ugly bloke’.

What’s the other caption?

‘Jaffa loves his smashing orangey bit?”

Someone forgot to take off the prompts for the photo editor…

We once sent a mag to print with the picture caption ‘get one of those lazy bastard sub-editors to write a caption for this’ 😳

they issued a statement last night apologising and blaming (but not naming) one particularly member of junior staff – inexcusable.
the club I’m in have called them out before a number of times for unequal columns inches for reporting local cycling results for women and men i.e. Top ten for men and Top 3 for women.

Time Inc. has recently made redundancies at their cycling magazines. I imagine that this is a parting gift from a disgruntled (former) employee. (Obviously, for the avoidance of doubt, this doesn’t make it acceptable.)

Jesus Christ

I didn’t see him in the article. 😕

Ha! Slipped that one past the editor. Embarrassing I’d say. But it’s probably an utter OUTRAGE in these internet times.

The fact that this was acceptable for a (presumably) junior member of staff to put in in the first place speaks volumes about the culture that exists within their organisation and, apology or not, that unspoken culture is far more of a serious problem than a single error on a single picture.

Yes, the internet will get outraged immediately, but these things point to a much deeper malaise within the sport that is not going to be fixed with an apology… 🙁

Nothing else on earth succeeds at making cycling appear dull so well as Cycling Weekly. I literally cannot understand why anyone would buy it.

Yes, the internet will get outraged immediately, but these things point to a much deeper malaise within the sport that is not going to be fixed with an apology…

Try reading ProCycling for some heartening coverage of women’s racing. Sure, not as prominent as the men’s, but some interesting interviews and race coverage. Good balanced analysis of La Course in the most recent issue.

ffs! I thought this was going to be a Kylie-esque thread. 2/10

the club I’m in have called them out before a number of times for unequal columns inches for reporting local cycling results for women and men i.e. Top ten for men and Top 3 for women.

I bet that’s proportionate to the size of the start list though.

Week night races in the Central region get >120 men across 2 races and are lucky to get 12 women.

are lucky to get 12 women.

1 between 10!

Storm in a teacup. I’ve read CW for almost 30 years and it’s quite obvious that the regular features are designed to a formula. I always have a flick through that feature looking for the “token attractive woman” as it’s so obvious that they try to tick that box.

It often crops up in conversation on group rides if the Token Attractive Woman wasn’t up to scratch this week, and we’ve joked about which member of our club would be that person if we were ever included!

So I find it quite funny that this has slipped through the net. Having worked in magazine design, I know how easy it is for things like this to happen.

Very embarrassing, but very understandable. To err is human…

Very embarrassing, but very understandable. To err is human…

The mistake of leaving it in the finished mag is totally understandable.

The fact that it’s obviously acceptable in their office, to write it there in the first place, isn’t understandable at all.

What happens if I found it mildly humorous?

Do I have to go and bleach my mouth out with soap?

I’ve been on group rides where one of the girls joked that she is the token attractive woman in the peloton. Does that make her a traitor to the cause? Should we all have fallen over our zipps to defend her other qualities?

Well I lol’d.

I bet that’s proportionate to the size of the start list though.

perhaps if there was less unequal coverage of women’s cycling the start list might be bigger.

As far as I’m aware when the cycling guys at time are assembling an article the captions just say “Type Caption Here gfgfdgsdgfdsgsd” until they come up with a caption, so the disgruntled redundant person theory sounds most likely.

Bit off regardless.

The mistake of leaving it in the finished mag is totally understandable.

The fact that it’s obviously acceptable in their office, to write it there in the first place, isn’t understandable at all.
This. Unquestionably.

The fact that it’s obviously acceptable in their office, to write it there in the first place, isn’t understandable at all.

I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the “Real World” isn’t at all like the sit-down-pissing-lib-fest that is STW.

People make “jokes” and have “fun”… It’s really quite a lovely place!

Perhaps. Or maybe there are other reasons.

How are you coming to the conclusion that it’s seen as acceptable to write it?

I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the “Real World” isn’t at all like the sit-down-pissing-lib-fest that is STW.

People make “jokes” and have “fun”… It’s really quite a lovely place!

If I was a junior member of staff I wouldn’t be doing things like that unless it was a prevailing theme in the office.

You might be different, but I doubt it.
You just want to sound like you are.

How are you coming to the conclusion that it’s seen as acceptable to write it?

Because it was apparently written by a junior member of staff, to be seen by other (less junior) members of staff further down the line.
It was left in place by mistake.
Clearly that mistake is not normally made. And it gets replaced by a caption that’s suitable for people outside the office.

but the “Real World” isn’t at all like the sit-down-pissing-lib-fest that is STW

😆

Does anybody know who the chick in question actually is? She looks pretty fit.

Editor calls sub an idiot, which he (presumably) is.

Editor for some reason stops short of calling himself an idiot for not scanning the proofs properly. It wasn’t exactly tucked away in the margin…

It’s the editing equivalent of a SMIDSY.

Then again, I remember the happy day when our team pressed publish on a court report of the early stages of the Harold Shipman trial, the part where he was still innocent and you ought not suggest otherwise. The headline was ‘Dr Death appears in court’. 😳

Hardly worth getting all pissy knickered about, storm in a dcup.

People make “jokes” and have “fun”… It’s really quite a lovely place!

If you don’t like it here…

I have to say what a very very stupid comment to make, clearly the editor doesn’t proof read.

Looks like the junior member of staff was just trying to highlight the casual sexism in the formulaic standard articles CW publishes, it’s just satire in the Alf Garnet tradition.

So you assume.

It was left in place by mistake.

Probably, but that mistake wasn’t necessarily made by who you’re assuming.

The other assumption you’r making regarding the culture is that if it had been picked up by the editors that the junior member of staff wouldn’t have got a bollocking – maybe like a lot of people he hadn’t realised it was unacceptable “banter”.

Maybe the junior staff member put it in knowingly to highlight their experience of the mags editorial style?

^that. It’s someone sending up the editorial stance.

I thought it was funny.

Saturday just gone, we had a CW writer and a photographer join our Club rides to do one of these pieces on our Club. We look forward to seeing the write-up